Survivalist Stereotyping

Do you consider yourself a survivalist? Are you a prepper? Have you begun learning how to live off the grid? Do you consider yourself sufficiently schooled in the necessary skills it would take to survive off the land if you had to? Are you as tired as I am of reading news pieces from major mass media outlets that involves survivalist stereotyping? Every time some nut job touches a gun the media finds a way to manipulate the story and paint the suspect as a stark raving mad survivalist. This in turn makes uneducated individuals in this country start organizing and attacking an entire group of people by labeling the headline grabber as being somehow related to an unruly domestic anti-government mob.

“The witness, whose identity is redacted from the documents, also told investigators the day of the shooting that Lanza rarely left his home, was considered a shut-in, and was an avid gamer who played games like Call of Duty.”

Conservapedia.com:

“Holmes was obsessed with role-playing video games and reportedly planned his attack long in advance. "Authorities working in the jail say that Holmes is maintaining his villainous 'Joker' persona. 'Let’s just say he hasn’t shown any remorse,' a jail employee said. 'He thinks he’s acting in a movie”

Eureka-wildwood.patch.com:

“So, the brutal, merciless, savage mass murderer of first-graders in Connecticut was another in a long line of avid video game players who turned their sick fantasy into our tragic reality. Surprised? asks Dave Grossman, a Mascoutah, IL, resident who is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and now speaks internationally about human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime.”

Survivalist stereotyping is going to begin encompassing those from the online gaming community. What the media loses focus of is that there are literally millions of people playing online games and probably just as many people that consider themselves preppers of some sort. There are more sane people that have survivalist or online gaming habits than there are those that flip out. I mean hell, even when they find someone that fits the outdoor lifestyle of a survivalist, they often mistakenly use survivalist stereotyping to compare the skills of the instable citizen with that of someone more recognizable.

“It wasn’t until early 2012 that investigators identified Knapp as the suspect from cabin surveillance photos and videos. Wingert compared his skills as a survivalist to Davy Crockett.”

Now one can hardly argue that Troy James Knapp didn’t possess the knowledge to live off the land, as several stories seem to indicate he had been doing so for a period of at least a decade, but to compare him to Davy Crockett seems a little farfetched. They use survivalist stereotyping to use this individual as a poster child for all of us. It is because of this survivalist stereotyping that we are all considered by the federal government to be secret factions of conspiracy theorists looking to topple the government.

I am a survivalist with some serious issues with the way our federal government conducts business, especially against the very people they are supposed to be representing and protecting. I enjoy playing violent online video games such as Call of Duty. Does this mean I am going to mount my horse and tow my cannon to Washington D.C. and start launching cannonballs at the White House? Does it mean that I am going to sneak into a theater, church or school and murder as many innocent civilians as I can before taking my own life or surrendering? According to the survivalist stereotyping practices of major media corporations it does.

They offer not one shred of scientific evidence to support their claims that survivalists or online gamers have an increased likelihood of going on a killing spree. My online gaming experiences have given me better hand/eye coordination and reflex skills; it hasn’t once caused me to fantasize about wreaking havoc around the neighborhood!

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@ UK Prepper…stay tuned we have some great content coming out in some future issues of Complete Survivalist with alternative options for survivalists/preppers to consider…keep an eye out for Issue #14 or sign up for a subscription and get access to the digital database.

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